This story will be updated.
The race for one of the country’s most competitive congressional districts — Utah’s 4th District — is too close to call. As of 5:20 p.m. Friday, Republican Burgess Owens’ lead over Rep. Ben McAdams, D-UT, increased slightly by 479 votes — up to 2,095. Owens now has 47.5% of the vote while McAdams has 46.93%.
We are feeling optimistic. This has been the close race we all expected it to be. Looking forward to getting the final count in. https://t.co/oYIgToKGET
— Burgess Owens (@BurgessOwens) November 11, 2020
The race could take days or even weeks to call, but election officials must finish counting votes within two weeks of Election Day, per state law. When McAdams beat the previous incumbent, Republican Mia Love, in 2018, he did so by just 694 votes and it took the full two weeks to declare a winner.
“There are still many thousands of ballots to be counted,” McAdams’ campaign manager Andrew Roberts said in a statement Wednesday. “Congressman McAdams was behind at this same point during the 2018 election and ended up as the winner. We are awaiting the next update.”
Before winning his seat in Congress, McAdams was Salt Lake County Mayor and served as a Utah state senator for Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake and West Valley City.
Owens is a political newcomer. He is a former NFL player and now a political commentator and author who appears regularly on Fox News.
